In Search of Identity and Self-Assertion: Resisting Patriarchy through Life-Writings in Nineteenth Century Colonial India

Against the backdrop of late nineteenth century colonial India, this paper would attempt to explore a cross-section of life-stories penned by women((Rashsundari Dasi Amar Jiban; Nistarini Debi Sekeley Katha; Haimabati Sen Memoirs of Dr Haimabati Sen; Krishnabhabini Das England-ey Bangamahila and Saroj Nalini Dutt Japan-ey Banganari), and try to cull out the sub-text beneath the textual narratives. These texts offer a window to the minds of the colonized women (the writers who were twice-colonized—by the British as also by their own men) as they strived for self-definition and self-identification. These narratives served as means of self-assertion of the women not only against the colonial administration but also against their own menfolk. What emanates from these pages is a heady mixture of self-realization and self-introspection. The 'voices from within' so long muffled and stifled, by giving vent to their emotions, desires, opinions help us in appreciating their world-views, their responses to the male-dominated world, in short, viewing the world from their perspectives and thus registering their protest against patriarchal norms. Using the trope of autobiographical subject of Felicity Nussbaum, the paper would try to encapsulate how “The autobiographical subject may describe subjection to an authority’s control while being bound to a belief that one is a free agent with an independent conscience and self-understanding.” These life-stories offer glimpses of the journey of these women towards self-discovery, the desire to carve a niche and an identity of their own.